


Beginnings

by shsl_saltine



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: F/M, Flashbacks, but like extra light, maybe light sin, pre-reveal, some hurt comfort
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-29
Updated: 2016-04-29
Packaged: 2018-06-05 04:48:30
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,495
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6690061
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/shsl_saltine/pseuds/shsl_saltine
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Chat Noir revels in how he got to be with Marinette.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Beginnings

**Author's Note:**

> youve found me out. im marichat trash. ahhh. anyways ive been working on my discipline so im trying to write at least one oneshot/chapter a night and this was the product of the first day of training. if it doesnt make sense, know that i didnt know what i was writing while i wrote this. i almost didnt publish it but then i went through it and fixed it so it would sound more logical. but if you want to know what this was supposed to be originally, the plan (LOOSELY. I USE THAT TERM VERY VERY LOOSELY) was for heavy sin after some heavier realizations. anyways enjoy.
> 
> EDIT: i went through and changed some things so if you want to reread it feel free. i just didnt think it was very continual so i had to make sure it all fit the theme.

It was in every shudder that ran through Marinette’s body that Chat knew he was wanted. It was in every gasp, every desperate touch, every plea for the other not to leave. In a world where he was an outsider, he would always be at home in her arms.

 

It hadn’t meant to get this out of hand. He hadn’t meant to let it progress like this; to where all he could think about were the nights the two could share together, only separated by a layer of faux leather. She was an addiction, a habit he never wanted to quit.

 

It started long before the two had realized it. With Chat’s teasing, and the way Marinette responded effortlessly.

 

_ “Hey Princess, lovely night isn’t it?” _

 

_ “Don’t you have somewhere better to be, Chat Noir?” _ __   
  


_ “On a fine night like this, there isn’t anywhere I’d rather be than visiting a pretty girl like yourself.” _

 

_ A blush and a smirk. _

 

_ “You should be careful there, that flirtatious tongue of yours is going to be the end of you.” _

 

_ “If it’ll keep making you blush like that, then it’ll be worth it.” _

 

He’d just wanted to get to know her better, especially when she would never open up to him as Adrien. He never imagined he would get to know her so well. To know just what pet names made her light up, where she was the most ticklish, the number of freckles on her nose.

 

_ “Why are you really here?” _

 

_ “Do you not believe me? I just want to have a talk with Mon choupinette.” _

 

_ A smirk and an eyebrow raised. _

 

_ “I’m not a creampuff.” _

 

_ “Oh? Would you prefer Mon petit gâteau?” _

 

_ “I-” _

 

_ She was flustered and looked away. _

 

And so it began. He started by visiting her on days where he didn’t have patrol, usually catching her in the middle of something. Two short taps on her roof hatch and she would relent, either letting him in or going to sit outside with him. However, as his addiction grew, so did the visits.

 

_ She opened the hatch above her bed and peaked out. “Two visits in one week? You must be getting lonely.” _

 

_ “What can I say? You’re hard to quit.” A grin was shot down at her, and she rolled her eyes despite the positive hum that left her. _

 

_ “You alley cat. How many girls have you been saying that too?” _

 

_ “Oh just one, I’m sure you’d know her. Talented, beautiful, smart, sort of looks like you.” _

 

_ There was that blush again. Red was such a lovely color on Marinette, it really brought out the blue in her eyes. But it never seemed to fit her personality. _

 

_ “Say, princess, what’s your favorite color?” _

 

_ “Pink.” It even sounded better in her voice. _

 

_ “Pink, huh?” _

 

_ He began seeing pink in places that red used to reside. _

 

This particular evening happened to be warm, the sunset framing a perfect early summer evening. School was almost out. The temperature was perfect. Everything should’ve felt wonderful, but Adrien couldn’t shake the empty feeling he had. It was a constant feeling, he never truly shook it off. It just faded into the background. Had he not had Plagg, the feeling would’ve drove him mad. But with Plagg was a promise of an escape, not only from his solitary confines but from the emotions that weighed Adrien down. With Plagg, there was the promise of Chat Noir, and Marinette.

 

He just needed a quick escape, he assured himself. Just time to talk to Marinette. She’d understand, she could help him through what he was feeling. Everything seemed to clear around her, he knew she would have the perfect insight.

 

_ She reached a clothed hand out to him, that same smile he’d fallen for all those years ago stretched from ear to ear. However, he couldn’t see her in that smile anymore. It was like it belonged to someone else, the person who currently had his heart. _

 

_ This wasn’t the the first time it occurred, but the intensity of the realization hit him harder than normal. _

 

_ “Chaton, you look pale. Is something wrong?” _

 

_ “It’s nothing, My Lady. Just a bit under the weather.” Liar. Liar liar liar. _

 

_ “Then go home, don’t let me keep you.” _

 

_ “I feel better just being by you.” _

 

_ He knew why he felt that deep seated guilt in his stomach. _

 

_ She flushed. Her smile wasn’t gone. She hadn’t rolled her eyes, or called him a mangy cat. She was accepting his advances. _

 

_ He didn’t know how to react. _

 

_ “I’ve been meaning to speak with you.” _

 

_ His miraculous beeped, as did hers. She made no move to leave. _

 

_ “I’d best get going.” _

 

_ He was gone with a flash, leaving her calling after him. _

 

He found her sitting on her balcony, the sun casting long shadows that sat behind her. Her blue eyes gazed at the sky in front of her, a look of thoughtfulness and reservation reflected in them. In her lap sat a sketch book, though the page was blank and her pencil discarded at her side. She looked so content staring out at the sunset that Chat almost felt bad for disturbing her.

 

“Chaton.” She said without needing to turn. She must’ve heard his boots as they hit the roof.

 

“You guessed it, princess.” He smiled, jumping down from his perch on the roof to stand behind her.

 

“Don’t you have somewhere more important to be?” She chided, and he could hear the way her voice was laced with hesitance that she must have been lost in thought before he arrived.

 

“Don’t you know that you are my main destination?” He countered, striding over before taking his rightful seat beside her on the concrete of the balcony.

 

“What would Ladybug say if she heard that?” Those blue eyes refused to glance over him, even with his focused on her. 

 

Did she mean his faithful and trusted partner? The one he abandoned when she finally accepted his advances? He didn’t know what she’d think, let alone say. “Mari, why does it matter what she has to say?”

 

She laughed at this, though it was hollow. Chat winced, knowing how many times he’d made the same type of chuckle. Had he made her feel this way?

 

“This has been going on for months now. You drop by every night. But I still don’t know if your heart belongs to me or Ladybug.”

 

Ah. So she’d been thinking about it too.

 

“I know you still love Ladybug.” She said and interrupted his thought. “Sometimes I wonder if it’s me you see, or if you’re imagining her in my place.” She admit and Chat felt his mouth drop open. What had he done that made her feel like she wasn’t his main focus.

 

How could he explain to her, Marinette, that she was beginning to replace the visions of his Lady. He saw Marinette in every smile she gave him; heard her voice in their banter; felt her warm touch when they bumped fists at the end of the fights. He could barely admit it himself, how could he tell her?

 

“I also know you put Ladybug on a pedestal.” She continued, she had never really stopped speaking. It wouldn’t matter if the blond wasn’t there, she might continue speaking. As if she was just thinking aloud. “I sometimes worry that I won’t live up to what you view her as. How could I possibly expect to rank higher than her if she is this immaculate heroine that has never done anything wrong and I’m just… I’m just Marinette.” Her voice tapered off, cracking before it had gone completely silent.

 

Chat was at a loss for words. The hurt behind her voice was present, but there was something more to it. Something the leather clad hero couldn’t grasp.

 

“Mari, why are you comparing yourself to her?” Chat finally found his tongue. The silence must’ve been killing the noirette.

 

“It’s hard not to. You still make those eyes at her, and I don’t know how you could be with me when you want her.” He wished she would look at him; let him look into her eyes so he could try and grasp at the barest of what she was feeling. “I don’t want to be second best. And I don’t want you to look at me and think of her. I’m… I’m someone too, damnit. I don’t want to be replaced with some golden statue of a girl in spandex.”

 

Chat kept his eyes on her, her eyes watching the sun as it slowly dipped below the horizon. “Marinette, what makes you think I look at you and see anyone different?”

 

She paused at this, hesitating to answer. “I don’t… I can’t say. I just have that feeling.” She admit sheepishly. “I’m sorry, I don’t mean to accuse you of all this out of nowhere. Well, not really nowhere as I’ve been thinking about it for a while. I guess it’s nowhere for you, th-”

 

With a gloved finger pressed to her lips, she silenced and quickly glanced at Chat.

 

“Marinette, just listen to me for a moment, alright?” With a nod, the finger was removed and a deep breath was taken. He knew once he spoke, there was no going back. It would confirm things he’d been trying to ignore and shrug off since their… rendezvous had started.

 

“Look, Mari,” He was stuttering, not unsure of what he wanted to say so much as how he wanted to say it. “You’re… You’re not the only one in my heart.” There was no way to dance around this. Just out with the truth. And with the way Marinette gasped, he had to make it fast. “But you most certainly aren’t second to anyone.

 

“When I smile at Ladybug like she’s a dream come true, it’s you I see in the way she beams back. When I’m feeling trapped, I escape to you. When I’m longing for an embrace, it has never been her that I go to. Always you.” He watched as her eyes widened, emotions swirling in the depths of her oceans. “You both have my heart, I will always love Ladybug. I trust her to protect me as I always will for her. But you are something more, something I will never get enough of. You feel more like home than my house. Your touches set blazes to my skin that fire couldn’t compare to. You make my world spin, like you hold my life in the palm of my hand.”

 

She was speechless as she stared at him, the blond taking a deep breath before he finished his impassioned mini-rant. “To answer your question, you have my heart. It was always yours.”

 

And before he could continue to speak, Marinette’s lips were against his. Desperate. It wasn’t the first time, but it sent sparks through Chat none the less.

 

_ “Do you have any idea what time it is?” _

 

_ “No, but I can clearly see you weren’t sleeping.” _

 

_ She blushed, her eyes darting to the side. _

 

_ “I realized a question, and I had to ask you.” _

 

_ “Couldn’t it have waited till tomorrow? I’d be home then, too.” _

 

_ “I had to ask you now. I wouldn’t be able to sleep till I did.” _

 

_ She stared at him, her confused look made Chat’s heart stammer. _

 

_ “Care to stand out here with me?” _

 

_ “Was that your question?” _

 

_ He wasn’t laughing, he was too nervous to laugh, and it made Marinette more than nervous. He could see it on her face. She wore her emotions on her sleeves. He envied it as much as he found it endearing. _

 

_ She stepped out of her room and onto the terrace. “Chat?” _

 

_ He took a step towards her and smiled. _

 

_ Her nerves seemed to dissipate. His only grew as they met in the middle of the rooftop. _

 

_ “Chat?” _

 

_ He pressed his lips to hers, a silent question, not for her but for himself. He couldn’t stop  thinking about it, about her, about what this would mean for him. _

 

_ There wasn’t going back after he took this step. _

 

_ But when she didn’t pull away, he knew it didn’t matter. _

 

She tangled her fingers in blond hair, not tugging but stroking it, petting it. He felt a shudder run through him and she pulled him closer. Chat felt so needed, so wanted, so at home in Marinette’s arms; he never wanted to leave. She was always there for him, was always at his side. He didn’t feel the need to pretend to be one way or the other, she was making it clear right now that she wanted him the way he was. The mixture of Adrien and Chat, not too much one or the other.

 

_ It was the dead of night. It was a mistake coming to her house. She wasn’t sleeping, but that didn’t mean he could bother her. _

 

_ “What’s wrong?” _

 

_ “Not even a hello?” _

 

_ “You look like you’re on the verge of tears. Tell me what’s wrong.” _

 

_ His facade faltered and he felt his eyes well with tears. He tried to keep his smile, but the way it strained his muscles didn’t go unnoticed. _

 

_ She climbed out of the hatch, wrapped in an adorable fleece pink robe. The early march wind whipped around them, but the layer of leather wrapped around Chat kept him protected. _

 

_ When he made no attempt to speak, she took his hand. _

 

_ “Come inside. It’s cold out.” _

 

_ Her room smelled like cinnamon and she of vanilla. He noticed this when he found himself wrapped in her arms. _

 

_ “Talk to me.” _

 

_ He found himself out of her grasp all too soon, but she beckoned to him as she sat on her bed. Her crossed legs cushioned his head, and her fingers raked through his hair. That was enough to calm him down. _

 

_ “So how about that-” _

 

_ “No Chat. Tell me what’s bothering you.” _

 

_ “I-” _

 

_ His green eyes met her blue ones. She held nothing but concern and affection in her eyes. It was enough to let him drop his mask (metaphorically) and open up to her. His new home. _

 

He pulled back, resting his forehead against hers. His eyes were open, watching her as her chest heaved and her face flushed. He could count the freckles on her nose.

 

He couldn’t stop thinking about how they got to this point, how lucky he’d been to come across a girl as wonderful as Marinette, how lucky he was that fate had worked out how it did.

  
Marinette may have not been there first, but that certainly didn’t mean she came in last. He knew he’d have to figure things out with Ladybug, and he knew Marinette had things to settle herself. But for the moment, all that mattered was them, in their world, so wrapped up in each other that neither noticed the sun setting or the moon rising. Just them and an odd history that Chat figured more than suited their current relationship.


End file.
